Over recent years there has been widespread development of personal computers, and the industry has experienced a rather dramatic increase in the design, development and sale of computers which are portable. These portable computers are not significantly larger than small portable typewriters, and contain their own built-in central processing unit, memory, hard drive, disk drives, keyboard, display and carrying handle. The keyboard usually projects forwardly from a base and the display is typically a liquid crystal display contained on one side of a panel or lid which folds down flat on the upper surface of the keyboard to serve as a cover to protect the keyboard and display during storage and travel.
It is desirable that the display panel, including the hinging hardware, fold flush with the upper surface of the keyboard, and this is usually accomplished by accommodating the display panel with a recess into which the upper surface of the keyboard fits.
Because the base, in the past, houses the disk drives, hard drive, power supply, battery pack, optional component boards, and circuit boards for the CPU (central processing unit), memory and display driver, the optimum space allocation within the base was a problem and dictated that the various circuit boards be stacked usually parallel to one another within the base either horizontally or vertically. This layering of circuit boards within the base requires the removal of the boards individually for inspection and testing, and more importantly provides an obstruction to ventilation air flowing through the base.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable computer that ameliorates the problems noted above in housing circuit boards in the computer base.